‘That’s a Black Forest Cuckoo,’ he said to Jerry.
‘Black Forest?’
‘That’s the area of Germany the wood comes from,’ the man said. ‘The Black Forest. That one was made by Hubert Herr in the nineteenth century.’
‘Sir?’ I said.
The man looked at me.
‘The landlord?’
He took his glasses off, rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, then stared at me from beneath bushy grey eyebrows. ‘That’d be me.’
‘You’re the landlord?’
‘That’s right. Been here thirty years.’
‘My name is Eddie Gianelli,’ I said. ‘This is Jerry.’
‘The name’s Morheim,’ the man said, ‘Angus Morheim.’
‘Mr Morheim, we’re tryin’ to find Barney Irwin.’
‘You friends of his?’
His face was blank, revealing nothing about his feelings for Barney. But how many landlords really like their tenants?
I took a shot.
‘Hell, no,’ I said. ‘Can’t stand the guy.’
Now he made a face and said, ‘That putz owes me two months rent. And when he leaves I’m gonna have to fumigate the place.’
‘Is he leavin’?’ I asked.
‘He is if I don’t get my rent.’
‘Do you know where he lives?’ I asked.
‘I do, but he ain’t been there either, for a while.’
‘Would you know if he owns any other property? Or has a girlfriend he might be stayin’ with?’
Morheim looked up at Jerry, who was still looking around at the merchandise.
‘You gonna bust his head?’ he asked.
‘We might,’ I said. ‘That sorta depends on. . a lot of things.’
‘He ain’t got a girlfriend I know of,’ he said. ‘Always chasin’ skirts, though. Nice girl wouldn’t have nothin’ to do with him.’
‘I see.’
‘His friends ain’t worth shit.’
‘Do you know any of them?’
‘No, but he hangs out at that bar around the corner.’
‘Clipper’s?’
‘That’s the one,’ Morheim said. ‘Buncha useless bastards in there.’
‘Yeah, we’ve been there,’ I said.
‘That’s it,’ Morheim said. ‘I don’t know anywheres else he might be.’
‘Well. . OK,’ I said. ‘Thank you for talkin’ to us.’
‘When’s it come out?’ Jerry asked, suddenly.
‘What?’ Morheim asked.
Jerry pointed to the clock and asked, ‘When’s the bird come out?’
‘On the hour,’ Morheim said.
Still a half hour to go. I was hoping Jerry didn’t want to stay and watch.
We started for the door and Morheim said, ‘Wait a minute.’
‘Yes?’ I said, turning hopefully.
‘Irwin’s got a storage unit.’
And who says there’s no hope?
‘He does?’
‘Yeah,’ Morheim said, ‘I know it because I got a unit in the same building. I seen him there a few times.’
‘And where is that building?’
‘Around the corner, down the street from the bar.’
‘You wouldn’t happen to know the unit number, would you?’ I asked.
Morheim chose that moment to put his glasses back on. He looked down at the watch he’d had in his hand the whole time.
‘Happens I do,’ he said. ‘Unit two twenty on the second floor.’
‘Mr Morheim,’ I said, ‘thanks very much.’
‘Do me a favor,’ he said.
‘What’s that?’
‘When you see that Schweinhund,’ Morheim said, ‘bust him one for me.’
‘You got it, Mr Morheim,’ Jerry said.
The old man looked up at Jerry and said, ‘And you come back, I’ll show you the clock.’
‘I will,’ Jerry said. ‘Thanks.’
We stepped outside, letting the door close behind us.
‘How do you do that?’ I asked.
‘What?’
‘Get people to like you.’
‘I’m a likeable guy, Mr G.,’ he said. ‘That’s what makes me good at my job.’
‘Hmm,’ I said. ‘Let’s go check out that storage unit.’
SIXTY-SEVEN
We had parked around the corner, so we were able to walk to the storage facility, which was on the corner of the same block where Clipper’s was. We walked past the bar while keeping to the other side of the street, then crossed over.
HI-POINT STORAGE the sign over the door said. I didn’t know what it meant, but it didn’t matter. You had to name your business something, right?
‘We’re gonna need your lock-picking skills again,’ I said.
‘Depends on the kind it is,’ Jerry said. ‘Places like this, people use all kinds of locks. If it’s a combination lock we’re fucked.’
‘Well, let’s find out.’
‘How do we get up there?’ Jerry asked.
‘That’ll be the easy part,’ I said. ‘You and me, we’re lookin’ for a unit that isn’t on the first floor, but not too high up.’
‘Like somethin’ on the second floor?’ Jerry asked.
‘Exactly.’
We went inside.
Storage units were a new idea in the sixties. That meant they were built into existing buildings, not places specially designed for them. Those days were a long time coming.
This structure looked like it used to be an apartment building. The floors had been sectioned off into units of varying sizes and shapes. We went up the front stairs and through the double front doors.
The young man at the front desk gave us the whole sales pitch about how helpful it is to have a storage unit, how small businesses were able to increase their invoice, and not their overhead. We let him wind down and then told him we needed a unit off the main floor, but not too high up.
‘Worried about fire?’ he asked. ‘We got sprinkler units on each floor, and plenty of fire escapes.’
‘Still. .’ I said.
‘Well, all right, then. We’ve got some available on the second floor,’ he said. ‘What size do you think you’ll need?’
‘What’ve you got?’
‘Well, we’ve got some five by eights, some eight by tens, some ten by fifteens-’
‘Why don’t we start with an eight by ten?’ I suggested.
‘Fine. Do you need a lock? We have combination locks, or just key locks-’
‘A lock and key will be good.’
I had to sign a one year contract and then he handed me a lock and key and said, ‘If you’ll wait a few minutes I can take you up, or you can just go on up yourself and have a look.’
‘My partner and I will be OK on our own. We’ll come back later with some stuff to store.’
‘OK,’ he said. ‘Welcome to Hi-Point. Your unit is number two fifty-one.’
‘Thanks.’
251 shouldn’t be too far from 220, I thought. This was going well.
We took the elevator up one floor, got off and found 251 first, then walked down to 220. Irwin’s unit was apparently one of the smaller five by eights. As we reached it we saw that things had suddenly stopped being easy.
‘Damn!’ I said.
We looked at each other, then at the door that had a combination lock.
‘Look on the bright side, Mr G.,’ Jerry said.
‘What’s that?’
‘The lock is still there,’ Jerry said. ‘Maybe that means his stuff is still in there. Maybe he’ll be back for it.’
‘Well, we’ve got — what, thirty-five hours?’ I said. ‘I guess we could wait for him here, but then he might not show.’
‘So? We can get in there.’
‘How do we do that?’
‘At night,’ Jerry said.
‘This place closes at five p.m.’
‘Maybe I can’t pick that lock,’ he said, indicating the combo lock on the door, ‘but did you notice the locks on this building? Easy.’
‘OK, so we get into the building,’ I said. ‘How do we get into this unit?’
‘The old-fashioned way,’ he said.
SIXTY-EIGHT
We went back to the Sands briefly, to check if I’d gotten any calls. There were none.
‘You put out so many feelers,’ Jerry said, ‘you’d think somebody woulda called by now.’
‘Yeah,’ I agreed. ‘You’d think.’
We each changed into dark clothes, then drove to pick up some things Jerry said he’d need. After that we went back to the Hi-Point building and worked our way around to the back.